Food, Recipes, Garden and Photography

Simple Tomato Sauce – A Freezer Essential

This is based on a Rick Stein suggestion and works very well. It’s a great simple tomato sauce which freezes nicely in portions. I always have portions in the freezer.

It’s flavoured with bay leaf and having fresh bay leaves really helps. Every garden should have a bay tree, they are easily grown in pots by the back door. It can be jazzed up by adding basil or oregano (dried or fresh) when using to add a different flavour edge.

I use tinned tomatoes and they work well. If you have fabulous ripe fresh tomatoes they would work too (you need to skin them) but I don’t think it will work so well with supermarket water balls…. This is probably a good way to use up that tomato glut at the end of the season if you grow your own. If using fresh from the supermarket, you might find some tomato puree helps the colour and flavour a bit. The tinned approach is tasty, easier and less work.

Did you know that most tomatoes sold in our supermarkets are grown in water (a system called hydroponics)? This is where buying organic can make a difference. The Soil Association certify what is organic, which they do by certifying the soil. So tomatoes that are organic have to be grown in soil.

It’s quite possible to grow all the ingredients in your own garden (assuming you have somewhere like a greenhouse for the tomatoes.) The onions, garlic and bay leaves are all grown easily at home. Get started with some garlic, it’s the easiest.

I find this sauce useful for:

Being the tomato base to smear on top of a pizza before adding other toppings

As a sauce for pasta. A simple cooked pasta with this sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan with fresh basil works really well.

As a basic sauce, it’s acceptable to most kids with pasta as it doesn’t have any “bits” or anything green.

Great with homemade ravioli, perhaps stuffed with ricotta and herbs.

Rick Stein uses it in a Spanish lamb stuffed aubergine recipe which is really nice. So can be added as a bit of a cheat to some minced beef or pork to make a quick ragu for that emergency guest situation.

I usually make a bigger quantity and freeze portions in labelled freezer bags. One piece of work, many meals.

Ingredients

Single

Double

Olive oil (don’t waste extra virgin)

125ml

250ml

Onions

250g

500g

Garlic cloves

2

4

Tinned tomatoes (400g tins)

1

2

Bay leaves

3

6

Water

150ml

300ml

Salt

1 teaspoon

2 teaspoons

Sugar

1 teaspoon

2 teaspoons

Method

Sautee the onions in the olive oil till soft. Do not brown/colour/crisp, so a low heat works best and this will take 15 to 30 minutes. Start this first and then look out the rest of your ingredients.

Make the garlic to a paste and add to the onions for the last 5 minutes to cook off.

Now add everything else and bring to the gentlest of simmers.

Cook for 45 minutes to an hour, until the sauce and oil have cooked together and reduce to be a bit thicker.

Remove the bay leaves

Allow to cool and then blend in a food processor or blender. You end up with a slightly orange looking tomato sauce that tastes delicious.

Make in advance and freeze or fridge till needed.

Portion Thoughts

For an 8-year-old, I find that 80g of dried pasta and 140g of sauce works well. That might leave room for that essential scoop of ice cream afterwards.

For an adult 120g of dried pasta, you might want about 180-200g of sauce, depending on how wet you like your pasta and what else you are adding. Eg. pan fry some courgette chunks quickly and add to the sauce along with some fresh oregano.

The 140g portion size works well with a portion of 6-8 homemade ravioli.

Oh, if you’re defrosting from a freezer bag then don’t put the bag of sauce in the microwave. The oil in the sauce will melt the bag and you will have an awful mess. Just sayin’.

If you run the bag under the cold tap you can remove the sauce from the bag quite easily and either melt in a pot or heat in a microwaveable bowl.